His Lordships gather for Gimblett's Hill opening

Somerset plan to invite Lord Rees-Mogg and Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, two long-time supporters of the county, to the opening and official blessing of Gimblett's Hill at Taunton in June. The landscaped spectators' area, named after Harold Gimblett, one of Somerset's finest batsmen, has been built on part of the nearby St James churchyard, which meant the exhumation and reinterring of 22 corpses. For Somerset's first game of the season an open pit was all too visible on the boundary edge. Phil Frost, the groundsman, was so spooked by this that he refused to use earth from the pit as topsoil for his square.

Somerset did not follow MCC's lead in banning Jeffrey Archer from the pavilion. “If we went through the records of everyone who had gone to prison, we might not have known where to stop,” Peter Anderson, the club's former chief executive, said.

Harold Stephenson, Somerset's wicketkeeper in 427 first-class matches from 1948-64, has died at the age of 87. Because of the war, Stephenson did not play competitive cricket until he was 27 but captained the county from 1960-64 and passed 1,000 runs in a season four times.

Bopara pays tribute to Hussain Sr

Ravi Bopara has paid tribute to Joe Hussain, his first coach, who died on Saturday. Hussain, the father of Nasser, the former England captain, helped to develop several young Essex cricketers at his Ilford Cricket School. “Joe was a wonderful man who did a lot for cricket in the Asian community and took a lot of responsibility for cricket around East London,” Bopara, the England all-rounder, said.

“All the kids wanted to practise at Joe's. I attended his school from the age of ten until 15-16, when I made it into the squads at Essex. Even after that I always went back in the winter as he was more than happy to let me use the bowling machine. He was a hard coach, solid and straightforward, who got what he wanted out of you as a player.”

Early start for Derbyshire

The ECB has allowed Derbyshire to make an earlier start to their Friends Provident Trophy day-night match at home to Durham on Friday in case play is held up by the setting sun. The county have decided to rotate their square by 90 degrees, but for now low sunlight continues to trouble batsmen. Friday's match will start at 1.30pm and an extra hour will be available after the scheduled close, but only for sun and not rain delays.

Wrath of van der Wath

Johan van der Wath and Andrew Hall, who were banned by the ECB last month from playing as Kolpaks for Northamptonshire this season after they played in the unauthorised Indian Cricket League in India, will have their appeal heard at Lord's today. The case will go before a three-man panel, drawn from the ECB, the Professional Cricketers' Association and an independent.

Gooch wants more

Graham Gooch has said that Andrew Flintoff, should carry on playing for Lancashire for at least a month before he is considered for England selection. “Flintoff must show his fitness is sustainable by playing match after match for Lancs and getting through 20 overs a day,” Gooch said at a dinner given by Friends Provident. “The earliest I'd want him to play is the third Test in June [5-9, at Trent Bridge]. Nor would I pick Steve Harmison as he's just not cutting it. One good Test in two years is not enough.”